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Wednesday, 11 September 2013

On July 31st,
as part of the ‘Wednesday Wonders’ event, which aims to showcase different aspects of the Roman Baths and its archaeological
collection to visitors, I chose to show artifacts and replica items from the
collection that illustrate literacy in Roman Bath and the importance of writing
to the inhabitants of Aquae Sulis.

For Romans being
literate was an essential part of the Roman education. A basic grasp of
literacy was essential for any Roman citizen to participate in business and
citizen life. We have many items from the collection at the Baths that
highlight this:

·Imitation Samian ware
which shows a literate potter’s stamp – this shows that some of the craftsmen
were literate and they used literacy as a means of identification on their
products.

·A fragment of an iron
stylus, which was discovered at Lansdown. This highlights to us that in the
areas surrounding Bath there was a high level of literacy.

·Fragments from a
Samian jar/ink pot. This would have been used when writing on wooden tablets or
papyrus.

·A fragment of a
public inscription that was cut into white marble found in the Temple precinct.

C

] IB CL
T[

This
might be translated as:

TIBERIUS
CLAUDIUS [SON OF] TIBERIUS

Finally and some might say
most importantly, the curse tablets embody through literacy the essential
humanity of the inhabitants of Aquae Sulis and suggest to us that literacy may
be more wide spread than we had initially assumed. We can see from the tablets
that the inhabitants of Aquae Sulis used their literacy as a means of
communicating with the Goddess Sulis Minerva. One of the Curse tablets, that I
had on display from the collection, had inscribed upon it a list of names of
the suspected thieves.

As part of the activity both
adults and children alike were able to have a go at writing their own name in
Latin, both on a replica wooden writing tablet and also on a piece of paper
which they could take home!

Wednesday, 4 September 2013

My topic for the Wednesday Wonders Handling Table was about the way Roman women looked their best to attract men and be more beautiful than rival women by using different natural and (what we consider poisonous) materials for beauty treatments.

Roman women were anxious about their hygiene and looks. They spent hours to attain that ‘natural beauty’ look and it had to seem it was no effort, although some writers like Ovid mentioned that the treatments were horrifying to a man, so it was better if he avoided his wife’s boudoir while she was getting ready. He also mentioned that the ingredients women used for their body sometimes were too strong and led to hair loss or skin problems. Satirists wrote many plays about women’s finery and made fun of the painted matrons who used makeup to hide their real self and old age.

Romans associated white skin with nobility therefore women avoided sun and tanning. When she went out for a walk her body slave always carried a parasol to protect her mistress against sunshine. Nero’s wife liked to use donkey milk to bathe in, as she thought it would give her soft, white skin. Clean teeth were also important and Romans made a big effort to keep them clean.

Hairstyles were different under every emperor since their wives dictated fashion. People in the countryside learned about the new styles from new coins that featured the new empress. Blond hair was extremely popular in ancient Rome, even blond slaves from Germany were worth more than others, and women most commonly dyed their hair with saffron to reach the so wanted German blondness. They also made wigs and hair extensions out of the slaves’ blond hair. Wigs and hair extensions were popular since noble women thought about their hair as ‘jewellery’. Apuleius, a Roman writer, said a woman is not dressed if the hair is not properly fashioned.

Women were also keen on hair removal as a part of their hygiene routine. They removed the hair from legs, armpits, arm and the private parts using different methods such as plucking, rubbing with pumice or shaving with a bronze razor. They plucked their eyebrows with tweezers.

Makeup was also an important element of Roman beauty. For reaching the fashionable paleness they used white chalk and white lead. Since lead was extremely poisonous many patricians died from lead poisoning. For eyeshadow they used ash and saffron. For red lips and cheeks they used the sediment of red wine, ochre or cinnabar.

Visitors were interested in my handling table and the chance to learn more about it through handling objects from the collection. It made them stop and listen. Nevertheless they realised, there is not much new under the sun about women’s vanity and the love of fashion; maybe just the ingredients are less poisonous today.

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We are the volunteers, interns and employees of the Roman Baths. We started this blog to provide you with a behind the scenes glimpse of what goes on here at the Roman Baths. We will be writing about what is interesting and important to us from collections to activities and events.